The Return of the Hideous New Girl
by RogueStar
Summary: COMPLETEThe second of my tiein fics before the sequel to Project Rogue. When one of Zim's old enemys show up again, it causes trouble for both him and Rogue.
1. The Carnival

The Return of the Hideous New Girl  
  
Chapter One: The Carnival  
  
"...And as for the survivors, it wasn't long before the rabid squirrels found them. Doomed from the very beginning...DOOMED!"  
  
Another day of skool with Ms. Bitters' "lesson of doom". The classroom kids were all either droning over the voice of the snake woman with drool slowly dripping from the the sides of thier half opened mouths, or wishing against all hope that maybe a freak meteor will crash into the skool and end this slow torture. Or, maybe the bell will ring.  
  
"And THAT children, is why camping is just another reason why all relaxing activitys are not meant for the ones cursed to begin with...like all of you!" Ms. Bitters finally completed her daily three hour lecture. The whole classroom cheered and threw papers in the air like confetti. Then to add more enjoyment, the skool bell finally let out its ring of freedom.  
  
"HOLD IT!!" The snake woman snarled out. Everybody froze in place. "I'm forced to tell you before you go, that there is going to be some kind of "carnival" at the city park on Sunday. The skool is being "kind", and letting any child in this class go for half price." She pulled out some flyers out from her desk, and began to pass them out. "Show the people this paper, and they will let you in with the half-off thing."  
  
There was some low talking and whispering about this, most excited about it already.  
  
"There, I did that, NOW GET OUT OF HERE! Have a "nice" weekend." M. Bitters said with no hint of "nice" in her voice.  
  
The room cleared out in seconds, some kids walking over one another to get the heck out of there. With the last of them now running through the hallway, the last one to exit the classroom was the Irkin invader in disguise. Zim stared oddly at the paper he was handed. He's never heard of this "carnival" before.  
  
"Hmmm...What kind of "HUMAN" thing is this??" He asked out loud as he walked down and out of the skool building. He continued to gaze at the paper, not really looking at where he was going. Suddenly, he tripped over something, or rather somebody's foot. He fell flat on his face on the sidewalk. He quickly looked up to see none other then Dib laughing back at him.  
  
"You should watch where your going, ZIM." He said in a joking manner. Zim growled as he got back up. He still had the carnival paper in his hand, now crumbled up cause his hand was made into a fist at the boy.  
  
"How DARE you trip me!" He hissed right in his face.  
  
"It was easy." Dib said. "You have that paper in your face." He pointed at Zim's folded fist. The alien uncrumbled it and looked at the paper again. "So...are you going to that?"  
  
Zim lifted his head at Dib with one of his looks. "Why would I, ZIM, go to this...this...THING you HUMANS call...a caaannee..."  
  
"CARNIVAL." Dib said with folded arms. "It's a thing humans go to to have FUN."  
  
Zim cocked his head to the side. "Umph...I have better things to do then watch abunch of YOUR kind running around, having "fun"." He continued right by Dib with a sour face. "Rogue and I are very busy at the moment anyway."  
  
" Where WAS Rogue today anyway, Zim?" Dib asked as Zim walked farther away from him. The alien stopped and turned right around.  
  
"NONE OF YOUR FILTHY BUSINESS, DIB-MONKEY!!" He shouted, then walked off.  
  
~.At Zim's base.~  
  
"Hand me that tube, Gir.. no, THAT one.GIR! Be careful with th-"  
  
*BOOM*  
  
The smoke cleared with Rogue and a suddenly psyched up SIR unit covered in black. The explosion wasn't harmful to them, but it was to anything else that was in its wake. Rogue coughed up a puff of smoke from her lungs and viewed the damage over. The tube, which Gir got for her, was now nothing more then a pile of burned glass near her feet. The little robot just squealed.  
  
".Well, THAT wasn't it." The female Irken said flatly, dusting the rest of her off. "Computer, check off the chemical known as "Nitro Glycerin" as "not it", please."  
  
The computer, which was now barely working, beeped up a checklist of different Earth chemicals and checked THAT one off.  
  
"Could we dooooo that again?? PLEEZZZ!?" Gir asked with wide eyes. Rogue didn't even answer that. She shook the rest of the black off and thought to herself, 'Zim isn't gonna like this one.'  
  
Just as she thought that, a familiar sound came up from the upper base/home area. "Spoke too soon." She said with a sign.  
  
She first could hear Zim's tired footsteps, but then heard them quicken as he reached the toilet to the lab. No doubt, he could see smoke coming from the bowl. The male Irkin ran out from the elevater when he got down, to see the damage to the lab, and Rogue and Gir just standing there.  
  
"...WHAT HAPPENED!?" Zim asked, his eyes almost as big as Dib's head.  
  
"KA-BOOOOMY!" Gir cheered out. Rogue shook her head.  
  
"Gir sort of dropped a exploding Earth chemical..." Rogue explained. "And needless to say, THAT wasn't the one we're looking for."  
  
For a while now, Zim and Rogue have been looking for a possible Earth subtrance or chemicals that could increase the grown in thier kind. They figured that if they were going to be on Earth of a good time, they should LOOK older, taller like any other growing human would look. It would come in handy when they start going to junior high skool. But so far, its been a no-go.  
  
"I think both you and Gir should call it a day for now..." Zim said, still lookiing at the mess.  
  
"...Sorry about that..." Rogue said. Gir went up the elevater, getting out of the aliens' way as they began to clean up.  
  
~Two Hours later...~  
  
The lab was finally cleaned and fixed up just as Rogue and Zim felt like collapsing. They both headed up to the upper level known as the house. Zim, wiped out, sat at the table in the kitchen, while Rogue went to the fridge first to grab a Cherry Poop. She sat next to Zim and drank it right down within two to three swallows. Crushing the can with one claw, she threw it over her shoulder, it landing right in the trash basket. The two both let out a sigh.  
  
Just then, Rogue's eye caught something hanging out of Zim's pocket. "Hey...what's that thing?"  
  
Zim looked down. He forgot that he stunk that carnival paper there when he was done talking to that Dib creature. He took it out and showed it to Rogue. She looked at it the same manner as did Zim before.  
  
"Car-ni-val? What's that??" She asked.  
  
"The Dib worm said it's something humans go to just to have "FUN"." Zim said. "It's nothing to us."  
  
"I wonder what kind of "fun" he meant?" Rogue said, still eyeing the paper. Zim's eyes perked a little to that thought. He grabed the paper right out of Rogue's fingers.  
  
"Dib didn't say what KIND of FUN the humans have!" The gears in his head started to turn. "What if it's a secret meeting of the Earth kind, or a type of infomation exchange!" His eyes turned sharp and focsed. "Maybe we SHOULD go to this CAR-NI-VAL..."  
  
"You DO have a point..." Rogue said, getting what Zim was saying. "Dib could have lied, right?"  
  
"He IS a DIB." Zim said with a low hiss to his voice. "That's it then. We're going to this CAR-NI-VAL on Sunday!"  
  
"CARNIVAAAAL!!!" Gir suddenly popped up from behind them, screaming and running around on the top of the table. "CARNIVAL!! CARNIVAL!! CARNIVAL!!!"  
  
"GIR!!" The two shouted. They tried to get him off the table.  
  
~Meanwhile...~  
  
At the barren city limits, a single figure stood staring at the human city ahead. The sun, now setting behind the standing figure, casted a creepy shadow in front of it's being. A small gimmer of light flashed from the left side of the figure's head, a metal implant of sorts. A grin formed across it's shadowed face.  
  
"This time, Zim...I WON'T lose!"  
  
TBC............  
  
*RogueStar*: This fic is number 2 of my tie-ins before the sequel of "Project Rogue". I had this one thought up before, I just had to get it started. Plus, I had some holes to fill in here and there. Yes, the figure at the end of chapter one here is Tak. I've been wanting to use her in one of these, but she'll be seen even more in the sequel! Well, I gotta go, so please R&R this! Later! 


	2. Speed Bumps

The Return of the Hideous New Girl  
  
Chapter Two: Speed Bumps  
  
Saturday morning. Zim stood in front of his huge computer, typing like a madman, looking for anything that has to do with the term, "CARNIVAL". The computer has been searching for info since day break, but nothing useful has popped up yet.  
  
Meanwhile, Rogue planned a little searching of her own. She left the base to scout out the area where the "car-ni-val" was to be held. At that time of day, the city park only had a few humans crawling around, a couple of joggers and a old lady sitting on a bench.  
  
Rogue watched from the top of a park tree branch, concealed behind the leaves. She didn't want to be seen, even though she had her Earth disguise activated.  
  
"This place is fairly big..." The female alien whispered to herself. "Why WOULD a bunch of humans group together all at once?" She leaned back on the tree's trunk in thought. "...Hmm......it could be anything, really....like what Zim said, a infomation exchange, or maybe a type of human-" Just then, a beeping sound went off on her wrist where her right gem is. Her hand formed the gem from underneath her fake human skin, and a small hologram screen came up with Zim's face looking back.  
  
"Rogue, where are you?" The Irkin asked through Rogue two-way voice radio.  
  
"At the city park." She answered. "It's not as active as I thought right at the moment..."  
  
"Of course not! Those human probabliy won't start setting the "CAR-NI-VAL" till after nightfall or something." Zim said. He sounded like he had some news.  
  
"Did you find anything?" Rogue asked into the mic.  
  
Zim went off screen for a second then came back with a print out of something. "The only thing the computer COULD find was this..." He started to read what the computer's description of carnival was. "..."CAR-NI-VAL: An event where humans organize for festive reasons"."  
  
"FESTIVE??" Rogue said with a werid look. "What KIND of festive?"  
  
"The computer couldn't input that, but whatever it is, I don't LIKE it anyway!" Zim said. "Human festive acts are not something to take lightly, Rogue." Zim recalled that one time during his first Halloween, or that X- mas thing. X-mas wasn't so bad, but HALLOWEEN, the thought of that night still makes him shiver. "We MUST go to this "CAR-NI-VAL" now more then ever! But in the meantime, get back to the base so we can plan how to attend it."  
  
"Got it." Rogue said, then turned the radio off. She gave one last look around the park then jumped from the tree onto the ground, landing perfectly on her cat-like feet. A nearby jogger stopped in his tracks at seeing that. The "kid" jumped from a eight foot high branch. The undercover Irkin just walked off, not noticing the bewildered human.  
  
Walking back to the base, Rogue eyed over the buildings she passed by, looking as "human" as she could. She wore a good disguise, but she still didn't feel like she had the race's actions down. She still has to make sure her "warrior abilitys" don't blown her cover, like last week during a thing of kick ball at skool. She ended up kicking the ball hard enough to make a clear dent mark in the skool's brick wall, knocking out three of the kids that were in the ball's way. Luckly, the kids are too stupid to acknowledge anything.  
  
"I feel if I don't do some sort of active training, I'll lose my edge." She said to herself. "I wonder if Zim would let me build something under the base for just that..."  
  
Suddenly, just has she could see Zim's house, something quick caught the corner of her eye. She snapped her head to the right, just in time to see it again, a blured flash. It was jumping from dark ally to dark ally between the buildings. Rogue suddenly got a high strung knot in her gut.  
  
'What the-! Humans can't go that fast!' She thought. Just then, she noticed what-ever-it-was heading towards Zim's house\base. Rogue wasn't going to let it reach it. She jolted off at her own speed and slammed into the blur without hesitation.That move caused she to fall backwards.When she got back up, the blur was gone, vanished without a trace. She looked around, rubbing her forehead which now had a bright red bump.  
  
"What WAS that...?" She was at a lost for any words. She didn't know where it went, but she looked down and saw a quick and swift skid mark on the road. The blur instantly turned and ran off when it and Rogue hit. Other then that, there wasn't anything else to see but the surrounding buildings and Zim's base.  
  
"I WOULD say my mind was playing tricks..." Rogue said as she headed towards the green house again. "...but my mind wouldn't leave a lump on my head!"  
  
~Meanwhile, a few blocks away from where Rogue was right now...  
  
"BLAST IT!!" An shadowly figure yelled out from a shielding trash can in a shaded area. Brought to light, this character "looked" like a human female child. She had dark blue hair which parted in the middle. She wore a striped shirt that hung below her back, stopping at her knees. And she wore boots with sliver buckles that went up to the knees. (Sound famliler yet??)  
  
"I don't GET IT!" She snarled as she rubbed on the side of her head. It beared a large red lump, roughly the same size as the one Rogue just got. "Something RAMMED right into me before I could get to Zim! What else could be as fast as me?!" She thought for a moment. "Could Zim have known I was coming for him? Well, no matter, I just have to be more careful next time. He must have some new security device around his house..."  
  
~ Down in Zim's lab, the invader continued to work on his computer, with his SIR sidekick just a few feet away from him, dancing to some music which only he could hear in his crazy little head. Just then, Rogue came walking in, still rubbing her head. Gir jumped up and ran over to greet her home. He then noticed her "boo-boo".  
  
"Awwww, you have a ouchie, Rogue??" Gir cooded, pointing at her head. The female alien just sighed and went over to where Zim was standing.  
  
"I'm back." Rogue said flatly to Zim. He turned and his eyes widened when he saw her forehead.  
  
"What happened to you?" He asked looking over her lumpy head. (Hee, lumpy head...^-^)  
  
"I ran into something." She answered, not really caring just how stupid that sounded. Zim gave a confused look. He just dismissed it, and began to explain what he had cooked up so far for tomorrow.  
  
~ Evening came as Zim and Rogue were now in the upper house, taking a break before heading back to the lab to continue the "CAR-NI-VAL" plan. During that time, Rogue was thinking weather or not to tell Zim what really caused her to bump her head eariler, but she then thought that it wasn't worth it. The red mark was still there too.  
  
"I wonder if we should go down to the park right now to see if thier setting this "thing" up yet..." Zim suddenly said out of the quiet. Rogue didn't say anything, just sat on the couch with legs crossed.  
  
~ Outside, unknown to the two Irkins, the child-like character from before was now just outside Zim's lawn and his gnowns. Out of the darkness, a small black cat with blood red eyes quietly walked up next to her. It looked more like a living shadow then a cat.  
  
"Mimi, fire the bugs!" The figure commanded. The black cat, like a bullet, ran into the lawn, and off it's body, little robotic insects flew forth and landed on the gnowns. The big-eyed lawn statues shot up sparks, then died down. The outside defenses were now disabled. The black cat sat in the middle of them all, flicking it's tail.  
  
With a grin painted on her face, the "human" girl walked right acrossed the lawn with no trouble. But just before she could get to the door, the knob on it began to turn. She and her cat quickly jumped behind the nearest gnown as the door swung open. Out walked Zim and Gir, both with thier Earth disguises, Gir swinging his little arms side to side. From behind her hiding place, the girl showed her teeth in a growling-like manner at spotting Zim. She was just about the put the jump on him when Rogue walked out, also with disguise.  
  
"Zim, I really don't think we have to go there now." Rogue said.  
  
"Nonsence! The eariler we get there, the sooner we'll know what the CAR-"  
  
"-NIVAL!! CARNIVAL! CARNIVAL!!" Gir screamed and ran straight ahead of him and Rogue. The two aliens ran after the SIR before he caused any unnecessary damage.  
  
When the two were out of sight, the girl came from behind the gnown with a shocked and rather confused expression on. The black cat came out, and looked up at her without even a "meow".  
  
"...WHAT'S with that?! Why does ZIM have a HUMAN living with him?!" Without wasting another moment, she started to follow them.  
  
TBC.........  
  
*RogueStar*: There's chapter two! This fic might run for one to two more chapters, I think. The next one is the "CARNIVAL" itself, and I have a few good ideas going for it. I'll get it up ASAP. R&R PLEASE! LATER! ^-~ 


	3. Walk in the Park

The Return of the Hideous New Girl  
  
Chapter Three: Walk in the Park  
  
The night sky slowly but surely disappeared as the early morning sun began to rise above the human city. With this early light, dozens of cars, trucks, and people started to gather to the city park. None were visiting, they were the setup crew.  
  
As the foretelling carnival finally began to take place, high up in one of the park's trees the two invaders were settled on the same branch Rogue hid on the other day. The female Irken was seating all comfortable, dozed off with Gir nested on top of her head. Zim, the other hand, has been up all night watching the park like an overly eager hawk.  
  
However, little did the three realized, there was one only "watcher" in their mist...  
  
Over across the street on the over side of the park, the strange girl from late night, (Which I think everyone KNOWS know she is by now, right?^^) was doing the same thing as the other two in the tree, only not in a tree, but in plain sight. As she stood there, with other humans passing her and giving a few odd stares, she just continued to watch both the commotion in the park and the hiding place of the two other Irkens.  
  
'...Siding with this planet's race, are we, Zim?' Tak thought to herself. "...I shouldn't be surprised. After all...what you and that other traitor went and tried was surprising enough for me.'  
  
*TAK FLASHBACK*  
  
On a planet near Irk, in a training building for in training invaders and fighters, Tak was eagerly punching and kicking away at a punching bag. Each hit was fueled by the hate and rage she still felt from what Zim has done to her, past and recently.  
  
"THAT...NO GOOD...FOOL!!" Her last punch went right through the bag, and sand came pouring out. Other Irkens, mostly males, stared at her with a fearful look on their faces. Tak looked down at the poured sand then turned and walked away, heading for the lockers. As she walked, she continued to rant within her mind.  
  
'I came back to the Tallest with NOTHING but disappointment! My plan was ruined, my ship was lost, and it took hours of repair for Mimi! And right afterwards, I was sentenced for MORE training, saying I was STILL not ready to be an invader! I AM ready! I've BEEN ready! It's all his-'  
  
Suddenly, Tak was stopped by some chatting between two other Irkins just coming out of the male's locker room.  
  
"Did you hear about Zim?"  
  
"No, what? Is he finally dead, or something?"  
  
"No, he and some powerful Irken fighter went and tried an attack on the Tallest!"  
  
Tak's eyes shot open wide.  
  
"WHAT? That's nuts! Where are they now?!"  
  
"They say no one really knows, but they do say the whole explosion of the MASSIVE was really their fault! The fighter didn't make it outta that, but a few think that Zim escaped and is now hiding on some other planet."  
  
"Who would be crazy enough to side with that...crazy anyways?!"  
  
"Who knows...but he, or she, is dead now..."  
  
"Thanks to Zim I bet, right?"  
  
The two went on talking as they passed by Tak, just standing there, letting it all sink in. I moment after that, she let a creepy grin appear on her face. Her thoughts suddenly turned from rage to high hopes of sweet revenge.  
  
'If I can find Zim and bring him back to the Tallest...they'll surely let me be an invader then! Capturing a crazed traitor would put my name on the invader list in a second!' She walked into the female's locker room. '...And I have a good feeling of where that ZIM could be...'  
  
*END OF FLASHBACK*  
  
The same grin that appeared on her face that day came back on her lips. 'Soon, Zim...I'll not only get my revenge, but my dream as well!'  
  
Out of the shadows in between two buildings, Tak's cat-like SIR Mimi came walking out, its body looking like it formed from the dark itself rather then just coming out into the light. It stopped beside its master and made a cat-like hiss.  
  
"Stand down, Mimi...we have to wait for the perfect moment...to STRIKE!"  
  
~Back in the park, Zim continued to watch the humans as they began to set up the different booths and tents for the festivities. His eyes barely blinked, his overactive eagerness was the fault of that. Behind him, Rogue moved a little, and with a small yawn opened one eye to see Zim in the same position he was in when they got there last night.  
  
"...You're STILL staring down there?!" She said, her outburst breaking Zim's concentration and caused Gir to tumble off her head and fall onto the grass below.  
  
"...Oh...you're awake..." Zim said, his eyes looking drier then a desert. He blinked a few times, and they were back to their glossy state again.  
  
Rogue sharpens her eyes as Gir came climbing back up the tree and plopped himself back on Rogue's head.  
  
"GIR! I thought I told you to watch the other side!" Zim said in his normal "Zimmy" tone. Rogue gave a tired sigh to this. And Gir just smiled and stared blankly back at his Master.  
  
"Zim? I'm starting to think this....human thing is really nothing to worry about..." Rogue said, now looking down at all the moving humans with their setup equipment. "For all we know, it could be JUST a FUN thing....for humans."  
  
Zim looked at her with exhausted eyes. He sat right down, too tired to notice Gir hopping from Rogue's head to his head. He let out a long yawn and stretched his arms. "...Maybe I SHOULD have just set up a spy bot or something..."  
  
Rogue's perked up to that. "WHAT?!" Zim nearly fell off his branch. Gir fell out of the tree again. "You've could have just done that?! Aww, ZIM! GEEZ!" The aggravated but too exhausted Irken stood up and hopped out of the tree, landing next to Gir, with his head buried in the ground from the second fall. She looked up at Zim still sitting in the tree, eyes narrowed. "...Ya know, if I didn't like you so much, I'd BURN you right now! I'm heading back home." She walked away, leaving Zim in the tree.  
  
Gir, for a second time, came back up the tree to a rather disappointed Master. The SIR sat next to him, and after a few short moments, said, "...You two in a fiiight??"  
  
"OF COURSE NOT!!" Zim snapped back, but blushed a bit.  
  
~Just exiting the park, Rogue walked slowly on and down the sidewalk, her movements and eyes showing all signs of fatigue. She didn't hate Zim now, she was just REALLY tired. She'll forget about it after a day long nap. She mentally shook her head, telling herself that that's just Zim, and that's nothing to hate him over. She grinned and just laughed it off, feeling better already.  
  
This good feeling didn't last long though. As the under covered alien walked on, somebody on the other side of the road caused her to stop in her tracks.  
  
That somebody, Tak, began to walk across the street, heading for the park. Her "cat", Mimi, follow very close behind.  
  
A sudden chill went down Rogue's back. There was something odd about the human she watched crossing the roads. Her facial features were VERY human like, but the overall look of her didn't strike Rogue as human. Something wasn't right about her. Then Rogue thought about Zim still in that tree.  
  
"...I better tell Zim...just to be safe..." With that, Rogue started running, not walking, towards the park again, but went another way around so that Tak didn't see her.  
  
~Back in the tree...  
  
"...But yer BLUSH'IN!! Aww, it's so cute!" Gir cooed.  
  
"GIR!! ENOUGH!!" Zim yelled, not caring anymore if somebody seen or heard him. "IF you want me to flash the RED on my face, DO it back at the BASE! We're heading home!" He started to climb down the trunk. He and Gir got on the grass and headed for the exit, which happens to be where Tak was hiding, right in a nearby bush. She grinned and was ready to jump out, and grab Zim like a prey.  
  
"ZIM! Hey, Zim!" A voice came out from behind the invader and his green mutt. Zim paused and turned around to see Rogue running up to them. In the bushes, Tak's eyes widen to see it was the female human Zim's be hanging with. She instance withdrawal from attacking to hear what Rogue had to say.  
  
"Rogue?" Zim said with a little puzzled look, thinking Rogue had gone back to the house.  
  
"Zim?" Rogue stopped in front of him and looked around the park for a second. "...Did you see a strange looking female human walking around just now?"  
  
Tak inched a little closer in her hiding place when hearing this. 'Did I blow my cover?' She thought.  
  
Zim looked that Rogue then thought a moment. "...Noooo, and what are you doing back here?"  
  
"I saw a human girl walk into the park, and she didn't....look right."  
  
Zim's eyes went up. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Weeell...call it just a hunch, but-"  
  
Gir suddenly interrupted, "Does Rogue feel sorry fer yelling at Zim?"  
  
That caused a rapid stillness in the air. Rogue and Zim looked at one another, waiting for the other to say something. And back in the bush, Tak was beginning to get lost in what the heck was going on with the two.  
  
".Hmm." Rogue tried to start first, but to her surprise, it was Zim who began.  
  
".You were right.I should have used a spy bot." He said it with a touch of embarrassment, but he said it with his best interest too. Rogue looked back at him and couldn't help but smile.  
  
"I'm sorry too, Zim. I shouldn't have yelled like that." Being there wasn't a lot of people around, and it wouldn't look unusual, Rogue then gradually made her way closer to Zim and gave him a sweet small kiss on the cheek.  
  
Tak saw it all and she was nearly thrown back in the bushes. 'WHAT?! Did she just-?!'  
  
In the heat of her confusion, Zim, Rogue, and Gir left the park before Tak could do anything about it. Once they were gone, she popped up from her shrub hiding place.  
  
".I don't believe it! I know Zim isn't the smartest Irken, but he's taken a liking to a female HUMAN!?" She posed a disgused face to that thought. "This make him more then a traitor, it makes him SICK! Tonight will be the night I give him just what he deserves."  
  
TBC...  
  
*RogueStar*: I know I said this one was gonna be with the carnival, but it's been so long, I kind of forgot how it was going to go, so this is what happened. The next one WILL be that, plus it'll be the last chapter too. Yeah fer me, ah? ^^'' I've been so freakin' lazy on my writing, it's sick. -_-'' 


	4. Tak VS Rogue

The Return of the Hideous New Girl  
  
Chapter Four: Tak VS Rogue  
  
As the sun finally started to set, the early evening stars were like a signal to have the humans begin their gathering to the park. The carnival as begun.  
  
In the middle of the crowd of screaming kids and headache induced parents, Zim and Rogue blended in rather nicely. The noise of the smaller, lesser earthlings was starting to get to them. They walked pass the crowd and stopped to behold a whole view of the park transformed into this human assembling. There were rides, game booths, snack places, and some odd looking humans to go with them. Mostly people with markings all over their fat, bare armed bodies and saying strange things to the other people walking by, commanding them to throw a little white ball at a stack of bottles or use a rather pathetic looking firearm to shot at balloons. The snacks were much like the foods common on the Irken's home planet, candy, popcorn, soda, chips, etc. And finally, the rides were forcing the kids on them to scream even louder and more unbearable.  
  
Zim and Rogue look at each other and waited for one to say something to the other.  
  
"...It's a human training camp!" Zim said. Rogue didn't change expression. She wasn't getting that kind of vibe from this place.  
  
"What makes you think that?" She asked.  
  
"It's obvious! Look!" Zim pointed towards the games with the weak guns shooting balloons. "That must be how humans train their revolting offspring to handle this planet's weapons and firearms! In case a suddenly INVASION was to happen! And THAT...!" Points to the rides..., "...Those machines are to test their restrain to suddenly pressure changes, and to see if they vomit because of it!"  
  
Rogue's face finally changed to Zim's odd observation on this. "...Then what about the snacks?"  
  
"SNACKS!!"  
  
Out of nowhere, Gir flies through the crowd and past the two aliens, crashing into a nearby cotton candy booth. The vendor ran away screaming while the green dog began shoveling mounds of sugared goodness into his mouth.  
  
"What the-! GIR!!" Zim ran over to the trashed stand just as Gir finished the pink cotton candy and was moving to the blue stuff. His face was covered in it, making him look like a demented Santa Claus.  
  
"Gir! I told you to stay at the base! What are you doing here!? ANSWER ME!" Zim shouted.  
  
"Uh, Zim?" Rogue tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to see Gir's entrance was causing a crowd to form around them.  
  
Zim looked at all the eyeing humans and then back down at Gir. "...Uh...heh." He bends down and picks up Gir. "That's a GOOOD dog mutt monster! Yeees, you are!" Zim said before running off with Gir and Rogue following close behind.  
  
They got behind of the game booths and Zim plopped his SIR down on the ground. "Explain yourself, Gir?!" Zim shouted.  
  
"DA SNACKS!!" The robot answered. That was really all to it.  
  
"It doesn't take much..." Rogue said shaking her head. "I think we better spit up. I'll watch Gir and make sure he doesn't mess up, and you can look around solo and gather more information. How's that?"  
  
"Excellent plan, Rogue! More ground covered in less time." Zim answered. "We'll meet back at this spot in an hour and see what we find out."  
  
They dispatched, Rogue and Gir heading to the next food stand, by Gir's wishes, and Zim went towards one of the rides.  
  
However...  
  
At the entrance of the park, Tak and Mimi could see the Irkens part ways. The revengeful alien was waiting for such a perfect moment. "...Let's go, Mimi." They rushed into the park to get ready and surprise their victim.  
  
On the other side of the carnival, Gir was now at a booth selling popcorn. Before that, it was candy apples, then soft drinks, and more cotton candy. Rogue was watching him the whole time, but just couldn't comprehend how a SIR could eat in the first place.  
  
Gir came walking back with a jumbo size bag of popcorn and smiled at Rogue. "Want some?" Rogue shook her head, of course. "OK!" Gir set the bag down and jumped into it, swimming on the buttered goodness, and eating at the same time. Rogue wasn't surprised. She's never surprised with Gir anymore. When he was done, he popped his head up and saw something else.  
  
"OOooo...PRETZELS!!" Gir suddenly squealed. He ran, tearing through the bag and up to a pretzel booth. Rogue quietly walked over with him.  
  
"One with LOTS of CHEEESE." Gir told the seller. The man behind the stand gave what Gir wanted, Gir gave him a dollar, and he chopped down on the cheesed covered snack. Rogue wasn't so fond of cheese and gave a slight sick look.  
  
"What 'bout you? Wanna pretzel, kid?"  
  
Rogue looked up at the taller, rather freaky looking carnie-human. "Me? Uh, no-I was just..."  
  
"Ah, come on. It's only a buck..." The man said with a creepy grin. Rogue got a weird vibe from this human. So just for the sake of it, she answered, "...Sure, I'll take one...?"  
  
The man let out a small laugh and handed Rogue a plain pretzel, since she didn't say anything about cheese, which was ok by her. She paid for it and they walked away from the pretzel man.  
  
Gir had already finished his; the poof was all over his face. But he noticed that Rogue didn't even touch hers. "You gonna eat that?"  
  
"Uh? Oh...no, you can have it." Rogue said, handing it to Gir. But he didn't take it. "...Oh... I get it. No cheese." She sighed and they continued walking. But then something caught her eye about her pretzel. She looked down and saw little crystal-like things covering the twisted bread snack. Suddenly curious, she picked one of them off and looked at it even closer. "...What is this stuff?"  
  
She sniffed it, but it didn't have an aroma or odor. It wasn't a rock. She went one step further and gave the little thing a small lick. It tasted funny, but not disgusting. It wasn't so bad.  
  
Suddenly, she felt a strange sensation all over her body. It surprised her a bit as she dropped the pretzel when it happened. Gir looked up at her and cocked his head to one side. Rogue glanced down at him. "...What? Is something wrong?"  
  
Gir just responded by raising his arm up over his head, like he was measuring something. Rogue didn't get what the robot was trying to say. "Do I...look different?" She said, not understanding anything right then.  
  
"You grew!" Gir finally said.  
  
However. Right when he mentioned that, Rogue again felt odd, a "sinking" feeling in the pit of her gut. Gir stared up at her and said, "No grow."  
  
Standing there, shocked, confused, and a little baffled all at the same time, Rogue couldn't believe what just happened...she obtained a second of induced growth! "But how!?" She then glimpsed down at the pretzel, and the tiny crystal which covered it. She picked it up and ran over to an empty area with no body around. Gir followed her, and when the coast was clear, she licked the snack, getting the same peculiar taste.  
  
"...I can feel it..." She looked downward and saw that the ground looked slightly higher then before. But again, she felt it suddenly go away and she was back to normal once more.  
  
"This is it! This shiny crystal...stuff! I've got to get more of it! Come on, Gir!" They both ran back to the pretzel booth...  
  
~Meanwhile, Zim was currently watching the effects caused by the rides on the other humans. The kids that got off the rides right afterwards either looked like they were gonna puke, or did so anyway. Zim was both sicken and rather amused, watching them creature deliberately make themselves sick.  
  
"What a bunch of unpleasant, repulsing organisms..." He said under his breath. When he couldn't take anymore of it, he turned the other way and began to head for another section of the humanoid gathering.  
  
However, behind a tent just a mere few feet away from Zim, Tak watched the undercover Irken making his way through the human mass. She hasn't seen Rogue with him for quite some time now...  
  
"...I've got you now..." A spiteful smile painted on Tak's face before she lurked into the crowd.  
  
There were many humans were Zim was, he could not see or hear his unexpected stalker mover ever closer from behind. He looked upward towards all the different humans; they looked like skyscrapers to him and his small size. And the slight yet nauseous stench of their race was already getting to him in such close encounters. He turned right around, and stopped in his tracks.  
  
Through the forest of humans walking every which way, he could see someone close to his own height, but he wasn't sure who is was. He first thought Rogue, but their meeting place and time wasn't in this crowd. He couldn't see all the features; the legs of the taller Earthlings blocked more of his sight.  
  
'...Maybe it is Rogue...' Zim thought. Right now, he just wanted to get out of this human mass. He started walking towards the figure, and immediately, he got the weirdest feeling about this. He's been with Rogue for a long time now, and he can pick her out of a crowd, even if she was in her human disguise. But this...there was something not right with whoever he was looking at.  
  
Suddenly, the figure was gone out of Zim's view. His eyes widened and he looked all around him. He got a bad feeling in the deepest pit of his guts; he now knew for sure that wasn't Rogue, but someone else.  
  
With the mix of the situation and the reek of human, he started to run straight through the accumulation of humans, knocking a few of them down. He was confused and now a bit freaked. He continued to run, until he saw a clear opening. Zim lunged through it, and he was out of the human forest. He breathed in fresh air and already forgot about the other factor of his experience.  
  
The last thing he remembered was a solid blow to the back of his head, and falling face first to the ground...  
  
~ Rogue walked away from the pretzel booth with a huge grin on her face and a few heavy bags of the "growth crystals", as she personal dubbed them. Walking next to her, Gir too had a big smile, holding a truck load of cheese pretzels in his little hands. Behind them, the pretzel human laid motionless over the stand's counter. Rogue couldn't get the crystals from him nicely, so...  
  
"That human had more then enough of this stuff to give out. I wonder why he was so picky about it." Rogue said to herself. "Ah well, it was his fault that he didn't behave on my terms...heh."  
  
Gir just bit down on his cheesy goodness with bliss.  
  
Rogue suddenly stopped and remembered something. "Oh, we were supposed to meet with Zim! It should be an hour now, right?" Gir wasn't listening. Rogue just sighed and said, "We better get back to the meeting place."  
  
They got to the place where Zim said they were meeting, but Zim wasn't there yet. Rogue assumed that he just might have got caught up with something. They waited for another ten minutes before Rogue started getting anxious.  
  
"...What's taking him? I've got to show him what I've found! This is important!" She looked at the bags she had gain from the snack human.  
  
Meanwhile, Gir was now down to his last pretzel and he was looking at it longingly. This moment didn't last long through as he opened his mouth and prepared to stuff his face. But he missed his mouth and the cheese treat felled to the ground next to the tent behind them. The SIR quickly picked his precious snack up, but suddenly heard some movement inside the tent. After stuffing the dirt covered pretzel into his mouth, he peeked under the tent covers.  
  
It was dark inside, but even in his dog suit, Gir's illuminating eyes brighten it up enough. The tent looked vacant, but there was somebody there, two figures. One was lying on the ground, and the other was looking down at them. The silhouette of the standing one had some recognizable features to Gir. And that wasn't all; there was one other figure there, a black cat with blood red eyes.  
  
"MiiiiiiMiiiiii...I SEEEE yoooou..." Gir said out loud.  
  
Tak and Mimi spun around and spotted Gir's head poking out from the tent cover. Tak scowled and shouted, "MIMI! GET'EM!"  
  
Outside, Rogue finally realized that Gir wasn't next to her anymore. Her turned around and saw him with his head in the tent. "Gir, what are you doing?" She walked over and was suddenly surprised when Mimi appeared from under the cover and knocked both Gir and Rogue to the ground. The black cat paused and looked right at Rogue with her crimson colored eyes.  
  
"What the-!" Rogue ducked just in time for Mimi to miss her but knock Gir back down. Already annoyed, Rogue grabbed the black cat and pulled it off Gir. Mimi hissed and ran back under the tent. "GET BACK HERE!" Rogue shouted. She crawled into the tent, and saw Tak.  
  
Gir followed Rogue and took the top part of his disguise off so that the whole inside was lit up from his metal eyes. Rogue's sight was immediately drawn to the Irken that was on the ground next to Tak, it was Zim.  
  
"ZIM! What did you do to him?!" She shouted to Tak.  
  
Tak just looked at Rogue with narrowed eyes. "I've been curious to meet you, human...what's your name again...Rogue, right?"  
  
Rogue was taken back by how Tak worded that. The stranger looked just as human as the next Earthling...  
  
Tak continued by saying, "Don't worry about Zim here, I just knocked him out, so I can get what I came for."  
  
"You know Zim?" Rogue said. "How would you know about him? Who are you?"  
  
"That doesn't matter to you, human...I'm disgusted to know that one of our kind has fallen for a creature of a different race..." Tak said. "I'm sure my leaders will take that into account when I bring him back, and get my vengeance!"  
  
"Leaders? ...You mean the Tallest, right" Rogue said calmly.  
  
Tak's eyes enlarged. "How much has this traitor told you!? I should destroy you right now for knowing that much!"  
  
Rogue looked straight at Tak with a focus stare. "...I am not what you think...I hate this planet too..." Rogue raised her arm and deactivated her disguise for Tak. This threw Tak for a loop. Rogue then said, "And if you do anything to Zim in anyway, I will make sure you leave this miserable planet in pieces!"  
  
After being quite shocked, Tak too turned off his human look for Rogue. "Looks like we have nothing to hide after all..."  
  
"What's your name...?" Rogue asked; her blood beginning to boil.  
  
"...Tak."  
  
"I should have known..." Rogue said. "I remember Zim talking about you a few times in the past. You tried to take this planet to prove your worth to the Tallest..."  
  
"...And get my sweet revenge towards Zim for ruining my life!" Tak said.  
  
Rogue gave Tak her best death glare. "I'm not gonna let you take Zim to the Tallest! You'll have to get through me first!" She raised her arms and her gem began to glow.  
  
"If you're helping him, then you're a traitor to the Irken Empire as well!" Tak released her metal legs. "I will gladly punish you for that!"  
  
"Let's see you try!" Rogue unleashed an assault of lasers towards Tak. She dodged them all and they just burned holes through the tent's covering. Turning her disguise back on, Tak ran out of the tent. Rogue did the same and ran right after her.  
  
Gir watched as the two female aliens took chase, standing next to his K.O. master. He looked down at Zim and started to quietly poke him in the face. "Wakie wakie, master!" He said. After a few sharp pokes, Zim opened his eyes and looked around his current surroundings.  
  
"What happened...? Uh, Gir?" He saw his SIR grinning widely at him. Placing his hand on the back of his head, he could feel a large bump from where Tak knocked him out, but he still didn't know that was her in the crowd earlier. "Gir! Where's Rogue? Why isn't she with you?"  
  
Gir answered saying, "Chasing Tak."  
  
"TAK!?"  
  
~Outside in the open, Rogue and Tak were causing quite a commotion. Although both were wearing their human looks, the way they ripped through the tents and booths and group of various humans, it was a miracle that nobody gave it a second thought that they may be not human. Of course, they're not that smart to begin with...  
  
After trashing numerous stands and setups, Tak and Rogue finally stopped in the middle of a empty area of the carnival. They were both gasping and sweating hard, but the look on their faces said that they were done yet. They stared at each other, eye to eye, plotting their next moves for the next bout.  
  
'...She's fast! ...The same speed as me!' Rogue thought. 'She must have had some kind of body enhancement to get like that...'  
  
'This Irken is different then other fighters or soldiers!' Tak thought. '...And since when did the Empire let full limb cybrog implants be permissible?' Tak glared at Rogue robotic arms. '...She must have got that done outside Irken Laws...'  
  
Rogue raised her arms, her gems flashed, the light expanding upwards. With a grin on her face, Rogue proudly displayed another one of her gem's specialties. By forcing the energy in the gems out and keeping its form solid, she can shape the energy into two long scythes-like blades, perfect for close combat.  
  
Tak stepped back a few feet, surprised by Rogue's new trick, but wasn't fearful by it. On the other hand, she too shot a smile. "You know, I have a few tricks of my own..."  
  
"Then why don't you show them?" Rogue responded. Before another word could be spoken, she lunged toward Tak, her arms crossed, ready to attack on contact. A swift dodge to the left saved Tak, but Rogue was rapidly on her feet again and turned toward her.  
  
Tak flashed her PAK legs and jumped high in the air from her pursuer. Before Rogue knew it, she was behind her and got her into a head lock. She could hear Tak's snicker under her breath for a hasty move, but it wasn't that amazing. Rogue threw her hands behind Tak's head and hurled her up and over. Tak hit the ground hard.  
  
"That kind of a "trick" was that?" Rogue asked mockingly.  
  
"Your right...that wasn't it." Tak said. A sudden flash of light appeared over Tak's narrow eyes, and Rogue immediately felt unusual. Her body stopped right where it was, she couldn't move. Still staring at her, Tak slowly walked up to her frozen adversary.  
  
"This is my trick..." She said proudly. She then deactivated her human camouflage, and poked to the metal implant on the left side of her head. "This gives me the power to control another creature's mind, and by the look of things, your mind doesn't seem that resistant..."  
  
It took some time, but Rogue was able to answer back that comment, "...My...mind...isn't..."  
  
"What's that? You have something to say?" Tak said cynically.  
  
"...it...isn't all organic."  
  
Immediately, Rogue broke away from Tak's mind grip, a back flash of energy threw Tak a few feet backwards. Free to move, Rogue jolted right after Tak and pinned her to the ground.  
  
"...H-How!? What is with your mind!?" Tak said; her voice full of shock.  
  
Rogue looked at Tak and answered, "...I was made in a different way then you...then all other Irkens. My brain is 50% high powered machine, cybrogic to be precise. And the other half is indeed organic, but even that has its important features. I have a higher sense of awareness then other Irkens."  
  
Tak suddenly grinned. "With all that hardware, you're more close to a robot then anything!"  
  
Rogue scowled and picked Tak up by her uniform. Those words...she has heard them before from another source.  
  
"...You're no better then the Tallest!" Rogue threw Tak so hard, that the tree trunk she hit cracked a bit.  
  
Just then, Rogue could hear Zim calling her name.  
  
"Rogue! Rogue, where are you!?"  
  
"Zim?" The female alien turned around and there Zim and Gir. "Zim! You're alright!"  
  
"Where's Tak?!" Zim said with a sense of worry in his voice.  
  
Turning back around where Tak hit the tree, she wasn't there anymore. Both Irkens gazed all around, but it was like she just disappeared into thin air.  
  
"...GOT YA!"  
  
Rogue swung around and caught Tak holding Zim in the same head lock as before. But Zim wasn't as strong as Rogue, he could move. He tried his metal legs, but Tak quickly used her own legs to block his opportunity to break free.  
  
"I haven't forgotten what you did to me, Zim!" Tak shouted. "And this time, your dumb luck isn't going to stop me!"  
  
"That wasn't dumb luck last time!" Zim shouted back. "It was because of my GREATNESS!"  
  
"Dib and Gaz helped too!" Gir suddenly blurred out.  
  
"BE QUIET, GIR!" Zim yelled back.  
  
"Let him go, Tak!" Rogue said.  
  
The old rival just laughed. "Why would I do that? We've already had our little bout, now it's time to go. I'll be taking Zim back to the Tallest now, if you don't mind..."  
  
"...Let him go." Rogue repeated, only this time with more rage in her voice.  
  
Zim tried to wiggle free again, but it was out use.  
  
"...You have two choices, Rogue..." Tak said. "...You let me take Zim-"  
  
But before that sentence was finished, it happened really fast; in less then a blink of an eye, Rogue bolted towards Tak, she didn't even see her coming, and with the same speed, Rogue summoned up her laser scythes again, and cut Tak's metal implant on her head.  
  
All at once, Tak felt a jolt of pain though her skull. She let go of Zim immediately to grab her throbbing head. She screamed a few times before regaining herself. She looked up and saw Rogue looking down at her with her laser scythes still glowing with their crimson light.  
  
"...Leave." Rogue whispered with the utmost wrath growing in her speech.  
  
With the look of total alarm in her eyes, Tak slowly backed away from the two, looking at Zim, and then back at Rogue again. Her rage showed on her face once more before running into the darkness of the night. Her cat/SIR Mimi, who was watching the whole thing, followed her and the two figures disappeared...  
  
~Later that night, back that Zim's lab...~  
  
Rogue displayed what she and Gir found while at the carnival to Zim.  
  
"...What IS this??" Zim asked. He opened one of the bags and looked at the strange little crystals.  
  
"This is what we'll use to increase our height!" Rogue answered.  
  
Zim's expression shot from puzzled to surprise. "...THIS is what we've been looking for?" He snatched up a hand full of the stuff and took an even closer look. "Computer! Analyze this crystal!"  
  
Out from the ceiling, a mechanical arm came down and scanned the crystals in Zim's hand. Back on the computer's monitor, only two basic Earth elements came up; Sodium and Chloride. And right underneath it was the real name them the substance: SALT.  
  
"...Salt? Isn't that a human seasoning?" Rogue said.  
  
"This whole time, it was a simple chemical compound!" Zim said. "We should have seen this before! It's so simple!"  
  
"Calm down, Zim. At least we've finally found it!" Rogue said with a smile. "Now we can start on the mixture using this..."salt", and grow taller!"  
  
After he stopped beating himself over it, Zim turned to Rogue and nodded. "We can start right now!"  
  
"Hey...just one thing, Zim?" Rogue said. "...About that other Irken, Tak ...what DID you do to make her so ticked off at you? I don't think you've ever told me that..."  
  
Zim thought for a moment before answering. "...Something about me ruining her hopes, dreams, and life...I think..."  
  
Rogue looked at him in a blank stare. "...Oh, ok. Let's get to work on that salt then!"  
  
~High up in the gloom of space, just a few hundred miles away from the Earth, Tak hovered in her new Voot she had recently completed, glaring down at the planet she had been forcefully kicked off from. At first, it was just one Irken she wanted to deal with, but now...  
  
"...Rogue. Don't think THIS is the end. One of these days, I will get what I deserve! And when that day comes, it will be both you and ZIM that I see go down!"  
  
The Voot hummed a deafening roar, and in a flash, was gone through the sea of stars.  
  
THE END 


End file.
